A total of 40 young women between the ages of 18 and 25, drawn from across the city will be trained under this initiative.

The Center for Innovation and Technology (CITE) Friday, began a one-year intensive training programme meant to equip young women with journalism and digital skills.

A total of 40 young women between the ages of 18 and 25, drawn from across the city will be trained under this initiative.

The ‘We the Future’ project, started two years ago empowering 20 young women in the first two years.

This comes after a realisation that young women are not empowered to use digital and social media platforms to their stories.

CITE director Zenzele Ndebele said the initiative seeks to train young women to fully utilise social media platforms to discuss policies that benefit them.

“At CITE we realised 86% of our audience is male and only 14% is female, and we seek to change the narrative where women are portrayed negatively,” said Ndebele.

“This project seeks to counter such by training women to use social media platforms as safe spaces and equip them with skills that will help them navigate social media spaces.”

Some of the participants who will undergo training this year said they are looking forward to the sessions.

“There is a general conception that the media industry is male-dominated, however with this training we will be able to develop skills that will make us stand out and challenge those views,” said Buhlebenkosi Dube.

Another participant said she is grateful for the opportunity to be part of the training as she will be able to share stories from a different viewpoint.

“l am learning how to look at news writing from a different point of view, instead of using the traditional format l will be writing stories that captivate young women,” said Bongiwe Tshabalala.

“This training will empower us to tell stories about women by women”.

Natasha Roland said the training programme will assist participants to raise issues affecting women through social media platforms.

Participants of We The Future are given certificates of completion at the end of the training.